Hoh hoh hoh...... who is this guy on CNBS right now?

He's talking about the hours worked in the last payroll report.  What did I say last month?

This is a problem.  If we look at the "employed" figure of 143,724,000 people a drop of 0.2 hours is a full-time-equivalent decrease of 1/2%.  Applied to the employed population this amounts to an imputed economic decrease of 718,620 jobs!

That is, the loss of work-week hours of just 0.2 is the same economic impact as firing 700,000 people!

I'll be damned.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000173519

~4 minutes in....

Oops.

Digital currency Liberty Reserve has been shut down after U.S. and Costa Rican authorities arrested founder Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk in Spain.

Central American newspaper The Tico Times reports that Budovsky was arrested Friday. Investigators say that Budovsky’s businesses in Costa Rica, including Liberty Reserve, were used to launder money for child pornography websites and drug trafficking.

That will be the end of that. 

If you have an account with these guys expect that all your funds are gone as forfeit.

It appears that the arrests include people in Costa Rica and New York as well, although exactly what the scope is of those busts is still a bit muky.  Reuters has a story out on this as well, and there is apparnetly now a filed indictment in NY to go along with the arrests.

Note that it is not likely that all of the transactions were illegal, and the implications for others who think they're "perfectly safe" with other digital "currencies".....

Once is an isolated incident.

The second makes you raise your eyebrows.

The third, fourth and fifth?

First was the Boston Bombing.

Then the first letter to the Senate with suspected ricin in it.

Now we have more letters, including one to President Obama, containing "suspicious substances" and Fox is reporting that a suspicious package at the Hart Office Building along with another suspicious envelope with Capitol Police ordering everyone off the first floor.

The remaining question is whether people are too skittish following Boston (and these "alerts" will prove to be BS) or whether something coordinated, however poorly, is going on.

Flash reports that a bomb has gone off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Are you done telling me that "gun control" will stop homicidal and terroristic jackasses yet?  Obviously "bomb control" didn't prevent this incident -- right?

Heh heh heh...

Right now: Savers have had a 10% haircut based on holding these rates at zero.

No, really?

This is now getting into the mainstream consciousness!

And Andrew Ross Sorkin agreed.

Heh heh.......

Disclaimer: Long boiled rope futures.